School Days
by reniRCx
Summary: Deals with pranks, homework, friendships, rivalries, and everything else little ninjas experience at the Ninja Academy. Naruto and Sasuke centric, please R&R.
1. First Day

Naruto woke up at 4:40 in the morning more excited than he'd been any day of his life. Today was the day he was going to start training at the ninja academy!

He sped through his normal morning routine in about twenty minutes, and then, unable to sit still, he paced around his apartment imagining scenarios for how the day would go.

_I'll be the best ninja in the class!_ He thought. _It'll be obvious from day one. Everyone will look up to me! _

Unable to wait longer, Naruto set off for the academy just a little after six o'clock AM. The entrance ceremony wasn't until eight, but maybe he would get extra recognition for being the first one there.

Across the village, another soon-to-be ninja in training had woken up early as well, but not to mindlessly wander about. Sasuke Uchiha was practicing some basic shruikan throws that Itachi had shown him. He _had _to get a head start in the academy.

_What if there's someone there who's better than me? _He wondered with concern as he went back inside to change his clothes. He _had _to live up to the Uchiha legacy, to his brother's legacy.

"Good morning, Sasuke," Mikito called pleasantly as her son skipped into the dining room a few minutes later.

"'Morning," he responded, grinning uncharacteristically.

"Are you excited to start training at the academy today?" Itachi asked. Sasuke turned to his brother, who had hadn't even seen standing there. Itachi rarely joined them for meals anymore. Or much of anything, really.

"Yes!" Sasuke responded emphatically. "Are you coming to the entrance ceremony?" he dared to ask.

"Wouldn't miss it," Itachi said with a small smile of his own. Only Itachi noticed their mother looking away disapprovingly. "After all, the whole family came to mine. Why should you be any different?" Itachi had raised his voice a little so that their father, standing in the hallway, was sure to hear it.

"I don't remember your entrance ceremony," Sasuke said, his smile finally giving way to a frown. "What was it like? Will mine be exactly the same?"

"You'll see," Itachi promised.

Through the whole meal, the adult Uchihas remained silent in obvious disapproval of Itachi's choice to have the family attend the ceremony, but it was hardly noticeable with Sasuke's constant chattering and Itachi's occasional response.

"Go finish getting ready, Sasuke," Mikito said. The little boy ran off, more than ready to get to that ceremony.

Naruto played on the playground near the school for a little while, and then walked around the building, peeking in doors and windows. _This is where I'll be training, _he thought giddily. There was only an hour until the entrance ceremony now, but other people had yet to arrive.

"Naruto!" someone called as he was making his third sweep around the building. "What are you doing hanging around here?"

Naruto turned toward the voice, noticing that it was one of a few people setting up a stage and a microphone for speakers. He didn't know why his face was familiar to almost everyone in the village, or why they all looked at him with such disapproval, but today he was too happy to care. "I start Ninja Academy today!" he said excitedly. "And I'm going to be the best ninja in my class! Believe it!"

The stranger couldn't help but give a tight smile to the child's antics. "All right. Families will probably be here in a half hour or so, and there will be other kids you can socialize with."

Naruto barely heard the last part. Families? There were going to be families here? That wasn't fair! You didn't need to have a family to be a great ninja. But Naruto knew that standing alone, he'd be alienated from the start.

Then he had an idea. Something that would get him recognized in a good way, not for just being the only one without a family. He waved back at the worker he's been speaking to and used the rope on the swing to climb the tree in front of the school.

Naruto could hardly believe it was working. _They must all be pretty bad ninjas, if they can't even sense me here, _he thought.

He made quite an effort to stay silent in the tree as people filtered into the courtyard. Only one person looked up, a girl with dark hair and lavender eyes. But she didn't alert anyone to his presence.

Naruto was almost giddy with excitement for what he was about to do when they started calling the students names for them to go stand up on stage with the Hokage. Aburame was first, a weird-looking kid in sunglasses. It went on far too long. The girl who had looked up at him earlier, he noticed, was Hinata Hyuga. She looked up at the tree curiously when she was on the stage.

"Uchiha Sasuke," the Hokage read from the list. Naruto grinned and got ready for his entrance. He _had _to be next on the list.

"Uzumaki-" the Hokage began to say.

"NARUTO!" Naruto yelled to finish, jumping out of the tree, stepping on someone's head, and landing exactly on the stage. He bowed, waiting for applause.

It didn't come.

"I don't like this kid already," Sasuke muttered.


	2. Name Games

**A/N: Wow. I somehow totally forgot to put Author's Notes on the last installment. This one's a little shorter, but it'll probably get more entertaining next time. **

There was no way to punish Naruto for something he'd done before he was even officially entered in the school, so despite the disturbance he had caused, he was on his way to homeroom with the rest of the first-years.

The teacher sat the children in a circle on the floor of the room in blatant ignorance of the rows of desks.

"Okay," the brown-haired sensei began, looking at the circle of squirming children. "We're going to start out pretty simple. We're going to go around in a circle and say our name and something about ourselves. I'll start." She cleared her throat, seemingly oblivious to the obvious boredom and skepticism of most of the children. "My name is sensei Jordan and this is my third year teaching this class."

Sasuke was furious. What were they trying to do to him, wasting time with useless name games? Most of the kids knew each other already, or at least knew who each other was. Shouldn't they actually be learning? "My name is Sasuke Uchiha and I have absolutely no use for this game," Sasuke said when it came to be his turn.

There was silence for a moment at his insolence, but then the blond girl next to him piped up "My name is Ino Yamanaka and, uh, I have no use for this game either!" She grinned at Sasuke as if sharing a secret joke. Sasuke rolled his eyes and didn't respond.

"My name is Shikamaru Nara and I would rather be almost anywhere else."

"My name is Hinata Hyuga and, I, uh…" she faltered. The instructor came to her rescue and nodded at the next person- Naruto.

Instead of remaining seated as all the other kids had, Naruto jumped up for his introduction. "My name is Naruto Uzumaki and I'm going to become Hokage one day!" he said, on the verge of yelling. The students nearest him cringed and turned away.

Almost every student laughed. "Hokage?" "Yeah right!" people shouted.

Sensei Jordan privately agreed with them, but decided that she had to act the adult and calm the students down. "Class, be respectful. If Naruto wants to share his future dream with us, we should all support it. Being a ninja is all about teamwork."

The class was intrigued now that the sensei was mentioning ninjahood. Jordan smiled in triumph, confident that she finally had their attention. "That's why we're doing this activity. When you all graduate and become genin, some of the people you see sitting around you will be your teammates. You'll have to trust each other with your lives."

Sasuke was already compiling a list of who he _didn't _want on his team. Definitely not the blonde girl who seemed so infatuated with him already. But he'd rather have even her than that Naruto kid.

Sasuke sighed, tuning the instructor out. He knew this stuff- it had been drilled into him for as long as he could remember. When were they actually going to learn something important?

"Okay, class, I'm glad we all had that chance to learn a little about each other. Now we're going to sit in the desks alphabetically and start on one of the most important things you're going to study your first year here- the Shinobi Code of Conduct."

Most of the students groaned, Naruto loudest of all. Code of conduct? That sounded so boring. Weren't they supposed to be learning real ninja tricks here?

"Okay, Aburame and Akimichi in this row," she began, and Sasuke cringed when he counted and realized that he would be sitting next to Naruto Uzumaki. The perfect start to his ninja career.

"Here, Uchiha and Uzumaki," Sensei Jordan called, pointing to another row of desks. Naruto leaped over the first row and rand up the steps, determined to reach his seat first. When Sasuke ascended at a normal pace, Naruto was already in his seat and stuck his tongue out at the dark-haired boy.

Sasuke just rolled his eyes and ignored him. Naruto drummed his feet against the floor, trying to provoke a reaction from his new seat partner.

Sasuke sighed and turned away. This was going to be a long year.

**A/N: Sooooo…yeah. Review please? Next installment will be up soon. Even sooner if I get a review. Seriously, even one. Thanks! **


	3. Disruption

**A/N: If this part doesn't get any reviews, I'm probably going to discontinue it. Which would suck, because I like writing this sort of stuff and I don't think it's all that bad. But whatever. Read if you want. **

Sasuke sat in class _trying _to listen to the teacher. Though he probably already knew more about different types of shruikan than any of the other students in the class and probably about as much as the teacher, he was listening for details that would bring him closer to a perfect score on the exam.

However, his concentration was constantly being interrupted by a distraction from beside him.

Naruto was not even attempting to listen to the lecture. Why would he need to learn something boring like this? Instead, he was drawing on his notebook and humming.

It was the _humming _that annoyed Sasuke most. What kind of person hums while they're supposed to be listening to a teacher? Also, their desk was fairly far back in the room, and Naruto's incessant humming was causing Sasuke to miss pieces of the lecture.

He'd been ignoring his seatmate for half an hour, hoping he would get bored and stop on his own, but no such luck came to him. His chair was already as far away from the Naruto's as physically possible, so the only option left was direct interference.

"Shut up and listen to the teacher," Sasuke muttered just loud enough for Naruto to hear him. Unfortunately, Naruto pretended not to and continued humming and drawing something that looked vaguely like a tree.

Sasuke kicked Naruto's chair, causing it to scoot a couple more inches away from him. Now he had the blonde's attention- Naruto was giving him something that looked like it was supposed to be a death glare. Sasuke slashed a hand over his throat in the unmistakable sign of _shut up or I'll kill you. _Naruto shrugged and went right back to humming; Sasuke could swear it was even louder now.

Sasuke glared over at his oblivious seat partner, who was lost in his own little world once again. Now the tree looked slightly more like an alligator.

"Naruto," he snarled, but again the blonde ignored him. Sasuke seriously considered raising his hand and asking to change seats- the instructor would be glad that he'd decided to solve this quarrel nonviolently, right?

Any thoughts of nonviolence ceased when Naruto started loudly drumming his feet against the ground. Now the kids behind them were getting annoyed.

Sasuke then had a brilliant idea. Again, he kicked Naruto's chair, this time closer to the steps and outside the table. As predicted, Naruto ignored him.

Allowing himself a premature smirk of victory- because he knew that when it was done, he would have to keep a totally straight face- Sasuke kicked the chair again, harder, causing Naruto and his chair and his paper and his humming to plummet down the steps and land at the teacher's feet.

The class sat in shocked silence for a few moments and then burst out laughing. In response, Naruto hid his hurt and embarrassment and stood up, righted his chair which had landed on the floor near him, and stood on it to take a bow.

The class laughed even harder and Naruto beamed at them.

"Naruto!" Sensei Jordan cried, enraged. "I will not stand for this sort of disrespectful behavior! Go and sit out in the hall for the remainder of class this afternoon."

"But sensei, it's Sasuke's fault!" Naruto retaliated, still standing on the chair so that he towered over the teacher. "He kicked my chair and made me fall!"

Sasuke was prepared for this, and looked at the teacher, knitting his eyebrows as though confused. With Sasuke's word against Naruto's, he was confident that the teacher would choose the former.

"Naruto, Sasuke, we can talk about this when class is done," the teacher compromised. "Naruto, since you were the one who actually disturbed class, you're going out in the hall. I don't think you'll be benefiting any less from today's lecture, seeing as you didn't even deem it important enough to take notes."

Naruto snatched up his notebook and pencil with a cheerful "See ya!" and left the room.

"Nice job, Sasuke!" the girl sitting behind him, Ino, whispered. "Don't worry, I won't tell that it was you."

Sasuke didn't even acknowledge her, much to Ino's discontent.

After class, Sasuke dawdled getting his stuff ready and met the teacher at the front of the room for their talk. He made sure that two pages of his immaculate notes from the lecture were visible to remind her how much better a student Sasuke was than Naruto.

The blond boy came in looking bored, almost amused, not seething with anger as Sasuke had expected. Oh well. He would still easily win this case.

"Sasuke, what's your side of the story?" the teacher asked, sitting at the desk and looking as if she would rather be anywhere but here.

"I was just taking my notes and listening to your lecture when Naruto's chair toppled and fell down the steps. He must have been sitting too close to the edge," Sasuke said with a perfectly straight face.

"And Naruto?" the teacher asked without comment.

"I was just sitting there taking _my _notes and listening when Sasuke started kicking my chair. I tried to ignore it- resolve the situation nonviolently, you know?- but he kept doing it and I just fell down the stairs," Naruto said. Sasuke had to admit, the idiot could lie with the best of them. Unfortunately for him, in a situation like this, reputation mattered too.

"You can ask Ino Yamanaka," Sasuke suggested. "She was sitting right behind me, and she knows that I did no such thing."

Naruto stood, toppling his chair, and pointed a finger straight at Sasuke. "You're going to get her to lie for you because she's one of your stupid fangirls!" he yelled.

"Fangirls?" sensei Jordan inquired.

"All the stupid girls that follow Sasuke around all the time," Naruto said, as if it were obvious.

Sasuke smirked. Getting a rise out of Naruto was working incredibly well in his favor. "I would never make Ino lie for me because she's my "fangirl" as you say. I just want this situation to be resolved so I can go home to do my homework and train."

Sensei Jordan sighed, having had enough of these boys' antics. It was obvious that both were lying, and more so that nothing would make the whole truth come out. It just wasn't worth getting into. "Okay, this is a warning for both of you. If either of you disrupt class again, there will be consequences, understand?" Both nodded. "See you tomorrow."

At this dismissal, both boys left the classroom as quickly as possible, going their separate ways after one last exchanged glare.

**A/N: There ya go. The beginnings of the Naruto/Sasuke rivalry. I may do a few more humorous oneshots with this same type of thing, but only if I feel like it. And I'm more likely to feel like it if ANYONE reviews. Thanks for reading. :D**


	4. Naruto's Revenge

**A/N: Thank you so much for the reviews, Devonne and Ravenpaw48! This is basically a continuation of the previous chapter. My English teacher started talking about revenge, which naturally got me thinking about Naruto, and then this spilled out. Enjoy. **

Naruto walked home from school muttering to himself and kicking an aluminum can. He ignored the odd glances his peculiar actions garnered and kept up a steady stream of angry muttering. "Stupid Sasuke, I can't believe he actually did that to me! He could have just changed seats. I wasn't even being that annoying, how could he even have known that I wasn't listening to the teacher?"

By the time he reached his apartment, Naruto had cooled down enough to stop seething over past wrongs and begin plotting his revenge.

"What would embarrass Sasuke the most?" he mused, talking aloud to himself. A few years ago, Naruto had found a ladybug on a windowsill and talked to it for awhile. Now he just talked to the air.

"He's proud of his grades," Naruto continued, picturing the almost-smile of pride and relief whenever he received a perfect test score and how shocked his seat partner was when he received anything less. "YES!" Naruto yelled, punching the air. If the ladybug had still been there, it would have either scurried away or keeled over and died from the noise.

Naruto had the _perfect _idea. The hard part would be waiting until next week to orchestrate it.

Leaving school the next day, Sasuke was vaguely surprised that Naruto hadn't tried to pull any kind of prank on him in vengeance for the chair incident. He was actually almost disappointed. It might have been fun to thwart some lame revenge trick of Naruto's.

There was little to prepare the day Naruto's revenge would finally be had. He didn't study at all for the test, though he wouldn't have anyway. But abnormally, he was one of the first children in class, with his pencil and paper out and ready to go.

When the teacher handed out the large test on the last several weeks worth of material, Naruto's first action was to write Sasuke Uchiha in the name line. Carefully covering his paper so Sasuke wouldn't see what he was doing, Naruto proceeded to get most of the answers on the test wrong. It wasn't too strenuous a feat- that was about as well as he usually did on tests.

He finished before Sasuke, who was immaculately filling out all the answers, probably all correctly. But instead of turning the terrible paper in, Naruto waited until Sasuke went up to turn his paper in and went directly behind him, concealing a pencil in the sleeve of his hoodie. He would only have a few seconds to do what he needed if he was to not be discovered.

Naruto slipped his paper under Sasuke's in the pile, then quickly erased Sasuke's name from the top of his paper and wrote in its place Naruto Uzumaki. The whole process only took a few seconds, and then Naruto was on his way back to his seat, barely able to contain a grin.

Sasuke looked curiously at his grinning classmate, who he knew probably shouldn't be grinning after taking a test, but dismissed his odd mood as one of the number of things he would never understand about Naruto.

Class continued as usual, but Naruto didn't lose his grin for the rest of the day.

The next morning, Naruto struggled to keep his face calm. He knew from experience and watching Sasuke that a calm facial expression would help direct blame away from you in the aftermath of a prank.

It became almost unbearable to keep a straight face, however, when Naruto's paper was handed back with a 100% and a sticker on it, while Sasuke got a 57% and a scrawled note from the teacher that said "see me after class."

Sasuke's expression was priceless when he saw the unfair grade. He flipped through the three pages of the test time after time while Naruto struggled to keep his face impassive beside him.

It took Sasuke ages to finally glance over at Naruto's paper, and it all fell into place- why he hadn't even attempted a vengeful prank in the last week, the minor handwriting discrepancies, the glaringly obvious mistake. It was all Naruto's fault. "You!" Sasuke snarled quietly, but the teacher calling the class to order prevented him from getting any further. Naruto smiled coyly at his success and slid the perfect test paper into his notebook, leaving Sasuke with no choice but to do the same.

"How'd you do on the test, Sasuke-kun?" Ino whispered from behind him, wanting a chance to show off her respectable 96%. Unfortunately for her ego, Sasuke didn't even turn around.

When the students were finally let out of school and released into the courtyard, Sasuke wasted no time in slamming Naruto into the wall as soon as most of the other students were out of sight. "I can't believe you did that!" he said, barely managing to keep himself from yelling.

"I know! It was very creative of me!" Naruto said, exhibiting a winning smile. Sasuke shoved the blond boy into the wall once again and released him with a huff of annoyance. He angrily walked away, wondering if there was some jutsu that would somehow prevent his father from seeing the hideous test grade.

Naruto grinned and jumped up, punching the air. "Yes!" he said aloud, but with more discretion than normal as he was in a semi-public place. "Sasuke's not even going to _try _to do something mean to me ever again now that he's seen what Naruto Uzumaki can do!

As they walked home, Naruto and Sasuke were both smiling. Naruto with his assumed victory, and Sasuke plotting his upcoming one.

**A/N: Dun dun dun. That's actually kind of a cliffhanger, isn't it? Reviews make me happy! Better yet, they make me write more. xD Thanks for reading! **


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